The CBI may have made little progress in solving the murder of IIT engineer Satyendra Dubey—it announced a Rs 1-lakh award this month—but in one aspect of the case, perhaps the most critical one, it’s moving forward: the agency has found merit in the corruption allegations Dubey made in his letter to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Enough merit to identify at least four possible criminal cases against dozens of private contractors and some officials of the National Highway Authority of India working on the Aurangabad-Barachhatti stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral. Each of these cases identified involves contracts worth Rs 100 crore or more.
Last fortnight, details of the proposed cases were sent for approval to CBI director U S Mishra. Because formal registration of such cases is usually preceded by ‘‘search-and-seizure’’ operations, the CBI’s findings are being kept under wraps.
CBI officials said that after scrutinizing ‘‘trunkloads of documents’’ collected by them during the probe, they have been able to confirm “four of the six areas’’ of corruption highlighted by Dubey.
These are: procurement of civil contracts, mobilising of contracts and advances for projects, the practice of projects being sub-contracted and the ‘‘systemic failures’’ of the NHAI in the award of the contracts.
Officials said that a scrutiny of documents together with site inspections revealed that in some cases, violating norms, huge mobilisation advances were paid in just two days instead of the stipulated 30. It has also been found that some private contractors had illegally sub-contracted works to a second, third, even fourth party.
Moreover, a lot of sub-standard materials and poor equipment had been used at some stretches. And, on several occasions, inflated bills submitted to the NHAI.
The CBI’s investigation in these cases could also help its murder investigation, sources said, since Dubey was shot dead after his complaint of corruption reached the Government which ignored his request for confidentiality. In fact, sources said that the CBI plans to officially register these cases after it has assessed where it stands on the murder investigation.
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Dubey had alleged that the 80-km stretch he was supervising from Koderma was subject to ‘‘poor implementation’’ and largescale ‘‘loot of public money.’’
Despite several attempts, Union Minister for Road and Surface Transport B C Khanduri was not available for comment. Last month, campaigning in Pauri Garhwal, when he was asked what lessons had been learnt from the Dubey episode, he had said there had been some ‘‘reforms’’ and ‘‘some internal steps to check corruption.’’
Incidentally, CVC P Shanker had told The Sunday Express shortly after the Dubey’s murder that the ‘‘lapses and problems pointed out by Dubey were exactly the same problems that the Vigilance Commission had found during their audits.’’
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What Dubey had written to the PMO and what the CBI has now found
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Dubey
• Project reports on the basis of which tenders are called are like ‘‘garbage’’
• Procurement ‘‘completely manipulated and hijacked’’ by contractors who are submitting forged documents
• Big contractors favoured by NHAI officials and even note-sheets approved by the Chairman are leaked
• Most works sub-let or sub-contracted to small petty contractors who compromise on quality Story continues below this ad CBI
• Corruption cloud in procurement, mobilising of contracts and advances
• Irregularities in sub-contracts
• Huge advances paid in just two days instead of stipulated 30
• Sub-standard material and poor equipment used by sub-contractors, inflated bills sent to NHAI
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